


Betting Pool

by DarkWitchOfErie



Series: Parkner Week 2020 [2]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: By adult Avengers I mean anyone over 21, Geniuses being oblivious, Harley Keener as Iron Lad, Harley and Peter are adults, Identity Porn, M/M, Parkner Week 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-05 22:54:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,447
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25673122
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkWitchOfErie/pseuds/DarkWitchOfErie
Summary: Peter is still Spider-Man, Harley is Iron Lad, and they're both trying to keep their identity a secret from each other. While also crushing very hard on each other. The adult Avengers are amused and exasperated.Day 2: “And I said ‘no,’ you know, like a liar” / identity shenanigans / iron lad
Relationships: Harley Keener & Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Harley Keener/Peter Parker
Series: Parkner Week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1860076
Comments: 8
Kudos: 170





	Betting Pool

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Day 2 guys! I hope you enjoy this one.

Tony watched his two interns and pseudo-sons from the other side of the lab. A few days after he’d arrived in New York, Harley had told Peter about how Tony had set him up with a lab in his garage. Today, nearly three weeks later, Peter had walked in wearing a t-shirt that said _Science: Doing stuff in a lab that would be a felony in your garage._ Harley had looked up, his usual grin on his face until he caught sight of Peter’s shirt.

He’d gasped, pressing a hand to his chest. “Darlin’, I would NEVER. It only _almost_ blew up.” Peter laughed, tipping his head back and closing his eyes, missing the soft smile that graced Harley’s face for a brief moment. They’d then moved to the other side of the lab, the side that had quickly become their side, even though it was all Tony’s lab. Tony couldn’t hear what they were saying unless he used Friday to eavesdrop on them. Mostly he focused on his work after that, keeping an eye on them when he thought about it.

About the time Harley had told Peter how he and Tony had met, he’d also started flirting with the shorter teen. Jokes, winks, casually brushing his fingers over Peter’s hand or arm, things like that. Peter, for his part, seemed content to let Harley keep flirting. To Tony, it seemed like he liked the attention but wasn’t quite confident enough in himself to flirt back.

But, Tony knew, they were both keeping the same secret. He was fairly positive that’s why Harley never got more serious with his flirty or asked Peter out. He also thought it could be another reason Peter didn’t flirt back. Peter was Spider-Man. And, when Harley had shown up at the Tower, he’d been lugging his own version of the Iron Man suit. He had just recently made his debut as Manhattan’s Iron Lad. For now, Tony was insisting that the two of them leave the major battles to the adult superheroes and focus on neighborhood stuff, which they’d both agreed to. Separately, because neither of them knew the other’s identity.

Oh, they each knew _of_ each other, but neither knew who was under the mask. Peter worked on his suit in the lab and allowed Harley to help him. Harley did the same. But neither had figured out they were working on each others’ suits. And Tony, along with the rest of the adults in their lives, was content to watch them both dance around the subject and their obvious attraction to one another.

A few days later, Peter was watching tv in the main living room, from the ceiling. He said watching it upside down helped with his reaction times and absorption of information for when he was upside down or swinging around during a fight. None of the others knew enough about the way his senses worked to dispute that, so they let him. This particular afternoon, he, Clint, Tony, and Bruce were watching reruns of the British version of Robot Wars.

Tony had gotten an alert from Friday that Iron Lad was out and about and was in the process of stopping a robbery. Everything was going well, but he still worried so he was checking his phone almost as often as he was making comments about peoples’ robot designs.

Peter, who was paying more attention to the tv, did not realize someone had joined them in the living room until he heard Harley’s voice.

“Hey, Tony! I need a hand with the stabilizers. Those bank robbers thought hitting me with their van was in any way a good idea. Front end of the van is smashed all to hell, and now my stabilizers are a little out of whack.”

Tony, Clint, and Bruce subtly glanced up at the ceiling to see Peter slowly crawling away, not looking in Harley’s direction. Harley, who was still in the Iron Lad suit, didn’t notice Peter on the ceiling. And, it seemed, Peter was more concerned with quietly getting out of the room than with what Harley was saying.

After that, the adult Avengers had started a betting pool. They all knew that both boys were geniuses. They also knew they were both oblivious. So, they started a betting pool on which of them would figure out the other’s secret first or if one of them would crack and confess his secret identity to the other. To that end, they also started setting up scenarios in which it was highly possible for their secrets to be discovered.

Steve and Bucky, for instance, had continued sparing with Peter, to teach him better hand to hand combat. But, they’d also started finding arbitrary reasons to call Harley down while Peter was sparing with the other. Peter, who was definitely stronger than the super soldiers, didn’t hold back much of his strength during those matches. But Harley, who was absolutely watching Peter spar, didn’t seem to notice anything unusual about his strength. Natasha had also taken to calling Peter ‘Little Spider’ in English as much as she did in Russian. She’d come up with the nickname for him pretty early on, but it had always been in Russian before.

Clint and Sam started asking Harley very pointed questions about being Iron Lad when they knew Peter was in earshot but not in the room. Harley, not knowing about Peter’s enhanced senses, always answered those questions, usually in a very detailed manner. And apparently, Peter wasn’t paying attention because he never caught on. Thor had transferred his nickname for Tony to Harley and had started calling him ‘Lad of Iron’. The first time he’d done it in front of Peter, Harley had freaked out, silently signaling to him to _shut the hell up Thor_ but Peter hadn’t shown that he thought anything odd of it so Harley let it slide after that.

Tony was by far the worst though because he was able to play them both. When they were all in the lab together, he’d ask Peter things like “How is that new web formula working for you?” Or, “Did you fix that balance issue you were having with the Iron Spider legs?” Then he’d ask Harley, “Did you see the new schematics for his webshooters?” Or he’d ask Harley about the jewel thieves he’d stopped the night before that was all over the news. Or ask “I know we agreed that you don’t need as many high-powered weapons as what I have but do you want to add the shoulder missiles I have? Just so you can practice with them for when you’re a full Avenger?” And they were both too worried about Tony spilling his secret that they didn’t notice exactly what he was asking the other.

Meanwhile, the flirting got more intense. Harley’s compliments got more pointed, about how pretty Peter’s eyes are or how cute he looked when he blushed. After being called “Darlin’” for a few weeks, Peter had responded by calling Harley “Princess” which made the older young man blush. Which of course meant that the pet names were used way more often by both of them. Peter had started sitting next to Harley during movie nights so he could not-so-subtly lean onto Harley which then progressed to cuddling with him during the movie.

All-in-all, their constant dancing around each other was driving the adults in the Tower nuts.

About a month and a half after the betting pool had started, the adult Avengers were all away from the Tower. That was unusual, but not a cause for alarm. They’d been called away to deal with an attempted alien invasion in France. So Peter and Harley were alone in the lab when Friday sounded an alarm. They both jumped to a computer screen where they were able to see that someone had taken advantage of the Avengers being away and were sending a small army of robots to attack the Tower. Probably hoping that destroying their base would render the Avengers less effective at least for a while.

They gave each other the same excuse – that they were going to go hide in their room – which neither of them actually listened to. They both stepped into what they referred to as their closets. It was a small room off the lab that housed their suits when they weren’t being worked on. Each of the heroes had their own so they were alone when they were suiting up.

Harley got out to the landing pad and surveyed the incoming robots. There were only about 20, but this was more than he’d ever dealt with before so he was understandably nervous and unsure about how he was going to fight them all completely by himself. He caught movement from the corner of his display and raised a hand, firing a repulsor beam.

“Woah! Cool it, Iron Lad. You looked like you could use a hand.”

“Spider-Man? Dude, sorry. I didn’t realize it was you.”

“It’s cool. Should’ve announced myself,” he turned to look at the incoming robots. “How do you wanna do this? Straight up the middle, or come at them from the sides so they don’t scatter?”

“From the sides, definitely. And keep them up here to avoid civilians. Can Karen and Susan communicate?”

 _“We can, through Friday,”_ Susan, Harley’s AI answered him. The two AIs synced to each other through Friday to help the boys fight with each other.

Friday’s original assessment that the bots weren’t very powerful turned out to be accurate. The two young men made quick work of the 20 bots, dismantling them and throwing their parts on the landing pad or through Tower windows so they could be examined later to determine who’d sent the attack.

Because it was so easy, they’d both started to get a little cocky. And unfortunately, Harley’s overconfidence meant that he wasn’t paying as much attention to the last robot, which got in a lucky shot that flung him at the Tower wall. Peter watched Iron Lad get hit and land on the landing pad. Frantic concern tearing through him – after all, he knew _he_ could have survived that but odds were that Iron Lad was just a normal man under the suit – Peter tore the robot apart and flung the pieces on the land pad.

He strode over to Iron Lad, who lay prone. “Susan? Can you give me Iron Lad’s medical status?”

_“Certainly. No broken bones, a mild concussion, bruising on his back and down his arms.”_

“Thanks. Lad? You okay in there?” When he didn’t immediately respond, Peter thought Susan may have missed something and he pried open the faceplate. “ _HARLEY_?”

“Um, hi? Do we know each other?” Peter ripped off his mask. “Peter? Seriously?!”

Peter dropped down to sit beside him on the ground. “The one person I was doing really well at not telling or letting find out about my secret is the one person I actually could have told?”

“What do you mean?”

“Tony found out somehow when I was still in high school. Ned and my Aunt May both saw me in the suit without my mask on when I didn’t know they were in my room. And my friend MJ figured it out. Of course, Tony told the other Avengers. But I could have told _you_ without needing to hide it?”

“You’re right. That sucks. Well, I know now. Oh, and sorry for not responding. I think that last hit damaged my speakers.”

“Oh, no problem. Come on, lets cart all this stuff inside.” They carried the robot parts down to the lab, spreading them out on the tables and floor and making sure that they were unable to start up again. After all, it wouldn’t look good to have carried in tech that could hack into Friday.

They finished up and turned to survey the wreckage they’d carried in. “I think this can wait until Tony gets back.”

“Oh, for sure. Let’s just start a program to log it before we go upstairs.”

“Hey, Darlin’?” Harley asked as Peter turned to a computer to start that program.

“Yeah, Princess?” He turned to look at Harley who had stepped out of his suit. Harley stepped closer until they were practically chest to chest. “Harls?”

“I gotta tell you, the only reason I haven’t kissed you before now is because I didn’t want to start anything while I was carrying such a big secret.”

Peter’s lips formed a silent ‘Oh’ but it took a couple seconds for him to actually get his voice back. “And now?”

“Now the only thing that could stop me is you.”

“Not gonna stop you.” Harley grinned and wrapped a hand around the back of Peter’s neck, gently pulling him forward.

They broke apart after a couple minutes, resting their foreheads together and breathing heavily. “Finish the logging program, Darlin’, and we’ll go up and watch a movie while we wait for the others.”

When the adults came back, Peter and Harley were cuddled up on the couch watching the end of episode 3 of _Good Omens_. Harley paused the tv and they turned to look at the Avengers. “How’d it go?”

“Good. No major injuries. Destruction contained to a small area. Overall, a very successful mission. All quiet here?” Tony asked.

“Yeah. Except for the robot attack,” Peter shrugged.

“Robot attack? What robot attack?” He strode around the couch to look down at them.

“Did Friday not notify you?” Peter asked. “There were like 20 robots that tried to attack the Tower while you were all out.”

“Tried?” Natasha asked.

“Yep. We heard the alert and both went to hunker down in our rooms like we’re supposed to. After a while, Iron Lad came to my room and told me all was clear. Apparently he and Spider-Man took care of the whole thing.”

Peter nodded. “And they carted the robot pieces into the lab for us to go over. I started a logging program for it, but we decided to wait until you were back before we actually got started.”

“Good. That’s good.” Harley and Peter made sure they were only watching Tony so they wouldn’t see the exasperated looks and sighs of the rest of the Avengers.

As the adults left, they sat back on the couch, grinning, and un-paused the tv. They had found the file Tony kept for the betting pool and had secretly decided to make the game more interesting. They were going to wait and see how long it took for the adults to notice that they both knew each other’s secret identity and that they were dating now.


End file.
